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Cutting the Strings
Team Titan Think Tank Issue 27 "Occupied Territory Part Four- Cutting the Strings." Front cover- Sonne flies at Wrench across the cover, as both power-armoured fighters LOCK IN BATTLE The issue opens with a hugely, hideous fat slab of a bald man, so fat that he has about four cheeks and chins. He is dressed in a large white lab coart that stil barely fits; he looks at the monitor screen, where all he can see is the compressed face of a whale. "You destroy my brother, and zen you try and kill me... vith a WHALE?" says Doktor Moleculus, aghast. He hits several controls as Blitzkrieg Island moves backwards, detaching from the whale. The island rises into the air. "Olaf vas always ze the one for ze machines, but I must admit, zey get the job done" Moelculus says. The island flies 100ft above the whale and activates the massive plasma generator at the bottom, as the whale is engulfed by the plasma beam. Water shoots out of Whale's blowhole, as a water spout fires at the beam; the spray mostly keeps the beam at bay, though Master of Arms slides down the face from the force of the two attacks, but grabs onto the bottom lip and hangs on for dear life. The comic cuts back to Molekulus. "Vat madness IS zis!" He strikes the panel in front of him and then goes for a commlink at his ear. "Kleiser, are you with zose prisoners yet? I vill need zem!" "Going as quick as I can, Herr Doktor, but I am... injured." "You are an UBER SOLDAT, man! Do as I COMMAND!" The fat man shrieks, hands raised. The comic then cuts back to Master of Arms. Yu's expression suddenly slips away, becoming blank. He hits his teleporter, appearing a couple hundred feet above Whale ™. Letting gravity do most of the work, he holds his guan dao over his head. Crashing down onto the whale, he brings his spear down hard, driving it most of the way through its skull. Purple energy shoots throughout the whale from the wound and then it shatters into tiny pieces as Cain and Reb are left tumbling through the sky, seeing Yu above them, spear pointed at them, as he falls "WHAT? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHALE!!!!!!" Reb falls, clearly upset. .Yu teleports, as the comic cuts to the edge of Blitxzkrieg Island, looking down at the two heroes falling as Yu's feet land on the edge, as he watches them fall. CUT Sonne watches as the giant snake slithers under the legs of the giant gorilla and the snake shrinks down into a very tin turbaned, richly dressed,moustachioed, Indian man. Narration- "The Rajah- Master of Transmutation." He looks up at Sonne and gestures up at him. "Ah, a Gunn always so recognisable. And always with the same strength. And weakness. The suit." "Uh. Hi, Mr. Man." "I am the Rajah... and though I hold you no particular ill will, it seems Wrench does. So, my apologies!" he yells up He sighs. "Well, at least he has manners." All of Gunn's armour glows green and then the entire armour turns to bright green fluroescent jelly as then Sonne and Tonic plummet for the floor. "ZARK-" The comic shows Cain and Reb falling as well, both heroic pairs falling in side by side panels. Cain looks to Reb, as he flies apart from him, towards a building wall "WHALE!" Reb starts tearing up "Dr Toni, Gunn... Laura, Dad, I'm sorry..." he cries as he sees the building, eyes wide. Cain reaches out a claw to Reb, flapping every few panels to try and stabilise his own fall, hissing "Reb! You have to calm down! You just have to-" Reb smashes into the concrete side of a building. Cain reflexively spins round as the side of the building explodes open, as if a small meteorite, not a child, had hit it. Cain continues to fall, seeing smoke and debris above him. He looks up as the building grows rapidly more distant, aghast, even stopping his wing beats for several panels, before they kick in again with frantic fervour. "He just had to... he'd better have... I mean, he's stood up to Tyrant trying to crush him..." he tells himself in gasps as the air buffets him. In the smoke and debris a figure can be seen standing up, not a child but a man. the R for redemeption on his shoulder and blue jumpsuit identical to Reb's but stretched and expanded round, the cape short just down to just before his waist now. Toni's mask sadly lying broken at his feet, as the man's face shows child-like joy in a confident smile. His hair is spiked, short and blonde. As he stands fully up, he flexes his oversized muscles and forms a fist. "THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE!" the voice yells as if to everyone and maybe, just maybe, to Cain. He looks above him to see the intimidating hulk of Blitzkrieg Island, his gaze taken to the plasma generator at the bottom. He takes flight his cape flutters behind him; on his chest, light shines. "Evil will fall before my light, a shiining beacon of hope!" The light from his chest fires out in a large shining beam upwards to the island. The beam cuts a swathe across the bottom of the island, moving towards the plasma generator, but not hitting it yet, as it melts a long black mark along the metal. Cain is captivated as the Reb-like man emerges and bellows, and snaps himself out of it as he sees the build up of energy he unleashes for an attack. "Hope, is it..? I wonder how much damage *that* will do to a flying city?" he muses. And, shaking this off too, he morphs to become pale blue with yellow spikes down his back, and joins in the man's assault with a torrent of electricity. The lightning bolts shoot erratically, without any particualr targetting, and just seem to bounce off the bottom of the island, though they blast off some of the chunks of rock covering the metal, superficial damage. CUT We cut to Tonic as she falls towards the city, now unable to grab onto the jelly covered, unarmoured Sonne. Tonic twists in the air. Suddenly her eyes glaze slightly and begin to dart frantically in the area around the rajah, the air charging with electricity and seeming to turn...yellow? As she again discharges a dart from the laucher into her own leg. "You h...have my grandfather...b...but n...not me. N...not today." The air around the Rajah suddenly turns into three tonnes of... custard? The Rajah looks at himself, covered head to toe in custard. "Not acid? These Titans are improving. Thank sweet Allah." The comic cuts to Wrench as he stands on the Megaplex roof, as he sees the giant ape grow to full size again in the distance. "Damn, well worth a-" SHUNKT The comic cuts to show Counter, of the Mega Heroes behind him. His eyes are black. "T--t..." "Wrench, you treacherous dog. Did you zink I was gone? Foolish" Counter says. Wrench's body convulses; the comic pans out to show him impaled on a sword going through his chest, glowing with energy. Parry runs in front of him, the two being sword wielding, blue jumpsuit wearing, blonde haired twins, male and female. "Very foolish." SLASH. The comic shows a silhoutte of Wrench's head flying through the air. The two Mega Heroes stand together over Wrench's corpse. "Now, to finish with these..." The comic then cuts to show a black spoherical chamber, where an electrical form reappears, of the thin, bald man "... new Titan fools." The comic cuts to Master of Arms. As he looks down and see Redemption's new adult form, and Cain. "Perfect angle of attack" he says. Yu's eyes go wide and he hunches over, his spear falling to one side with a series of rattling clangs. He claws at his chest and convulses, a strangled cry coming from his throat. "I...deny you...monster..." CUT We cut to Sonne as globs of jely shoot up at the reader as he falls. "Bah! No!" Sonne tries to reference his internal HUD for damage readings... but the HUD falls into his eyes, as lime jelly. "Just my zarking -" as Sonne's armour suddenly reverts to how it was, a powerful burn of retro engines letting him land on the ground gracefully. "... luck? Huh. OK. Still there, Pops?" There is no response. "... Stardust. Pops? GRANDDAD?" The Rajah, covered in custard, looks at Gunn. "You... reversed my power?" There is still nothing from GRANDDAD.. Gunn flicks open a keypad on his bracer, and starts typing. He looks up at Rajah. "Huh? Yeah, guess so. Hey, can you uh. Not do that? Please? This stuff is really expensive..." "I would... prefer to transmute Blitzkrieg... into something... hilariously wicked... but he controls me... say, could, you turn off my nanites and then... well, I help you free the wills of this city, and we part ways, friends?" The Rajah, not a man of small will or fortitude, fights the nanite control enough to give Sonne the most child-like of smiles. Gunn flicks his bracer-keyboard shut, mulling it over. "Yeah. Probably. I mean, I can try." The Rajah is small enough to be a child, despite being about in his seventies, with his white curled moustache Gunn paces over, his HUD blinks to a more yellowish hue. "This should be... simple. Alright." he flicks his keypad open once more, and the bubble of energy engulfs the pair of them. Gunn gives the small man a pat on the shoulder with a glowing gauntlet. Rajah flinches a moment, as energy flashes through him; the comic shows the X-RAY view again, as Sonne burns out the nanites in his body. Rajah claps him on the lower arms. "My dear boy, I do believe that you and your female companion have changed my view on Titans. Now, get me to Blitzkrieg, and I shall turn him into something... harmless." He flashes that smile again. "I think we fried him. He was really mad, and shouted a fair bit. Apparently we have to go get this Wrench guy now, he's on top of some tower with an M on it?" "No. He is gone. Blitzkrieg is giving the orders again. Though Kaan'Qsst has fought the will of both. Now there is a creature one can follow. Impressive voice. Very commanding. To find Blitzkrieg, you need to find his flying island. And from the fact I can hear its energy beam pounding away, one assumes it is not cloaked. If you want to be a true hero my friend, then you should catch your falling companion, and we shoul-" Citizen Ape roars and swipes a hand down at Sonne who leaps and rolls, as the hand misses "Iamreallysickoftheseprimates! Hey, buddy, can you deal with this guy? I'll deal with Blitzy." "Clearly sir, you are still in need of education of who you deal with." And the four foot high man with a confident smile, turns to face the gigantic stone ape. Cue the robots above, as the two groups of ten split; ten fly off in the direction the whale went, three Orbiters land by Sonne, one behind, one to each side and the others fly above, trying to cut him off. "Okay, now things got interesting. Let's take these droids to town, buddy!" "How about the junkyard?" Rajah suggests "Sure!" Gunn boldly states, before muttering "Whatever one of those is." "It is a place for SCRAP METAL!" says Rajah, raising a hand and pointing up theatrically, as he is want to do One metal hand sweeps at Sonne and Sonne lifts up his hands. As it tries to crush him, he holds it up and flings the robot back, boosting up as another hand sweeps by, jet-somersaulting, as he lands, only to get punched by the third bot; the robot loses several fingers, and Sonne takes no damage, as the fingers fly at the reader. "Hah! Nazi that, chump!" We then cut to Redemption and as the remaining ten Reichdroid Orbiters fly in, firing all their lasers at Redemption; he whips in between most of the lasers, but two strike his chest and the chest glows, as the light wipes out the laser blastsleaving even his costume unmarked. Sonne can't help but look up as he avoids robot fists as he sees Tonic, no longer falling towards him. Instead, her fall goes... sideways? ".... ... ... OK." Sonne is clearly confused. Tonic goes back in the direction where the team came from... upside down and she doesn't seem to be in control of her direction as her limbs flail. "... Be right there! Just... got something on the go at the minute!" "...Oh f...for...h...help!" She flails rather pitifully and her wrist launcher falls off, as well a bandolier of dart clips, which fall into the custard between Sonne and Rajah. "Well that's just....ah! c...clips. B2...i...nanites! That's h...how I..." he flails again in frustration, as then she diapears out of view. We cut to Cain. "Reb? Is that you?" Cain calls up to the man, then mutters "I rather hope that's you." "I am Reb but more, I am what Reb was meant to be, and i know what i am now Cain," he smiles softly to his dinosaur pal. "Well, I suppose that'll do." he says, to himself again, before asking "And what exactly do you intend to do with this... surge of power? You don't intend to just shoot Blitzkrieg's island repeatedly, do you?" "No i intend to destroy it; despite his army of nanite controlled subjects he still felt the need to cloak his island." He pauses draamticly "He was protecting it even behind an army of enslaved super powered indivuals; it must be important." "Yes, well, that's all well and good... but can we at least regroup with our allies first?"Cain starts looking around, "Wherever they may be..." "You locate them, old chum, I shall endeavor to maintain focus on me." "Heh. Then I don't suspect it will be much of an ask to say, stay where I can see you." "For you friend? I'll light up the sky," He smiles and gives a tiny nod. With that, Cain flies high into the sky; he sees Sonne, or rather, the robots and giant ape attacking his position and then he looks back at Blitzkrieg Island, and he sees Yu, at the edge, on his knees, hands clutching his head. "Choices. Hero work always has to include *choices*." he scoffs, looking between the two. He closes his eyes in the direction of Yu. "I'm sorry, friend. But if my plan works, we can end this all now..." And he reluctantly swoops to the aid of Sonne. As he swoops over, he sees Mister Psychic on his balcony, as he fires a psycho-kinetic blast from the bottom of his cane at Sonne, but misses him greatly, blasting a shop window."Though that *would* explain his predicament", Cain adds. "Well there goes the window of my favourite humbug shop" Psychic remarks, unable to stop himself. The seven Reichdroids above Sonne shoot at Cain as he approaches; most of the lasers flies past, but one hits each wing. Cain's wing damage causes him to plummet several feet before he regains control, gliding down to Gunn as smoke trails from each blast. "They want to fight the tactician, do they?" he hisses. As he shifts into a brighter red form with triceratops horns, and bodily slams himself into the Reichdroid behind Sonne, instantly blowing it to scrap. He skids to a halt in a kickup of dust, leaping at the next one in a raptor pounce, morphing again as he leaps so he has wickedly long and sharp claws, shredding down the front of it as it turns to laser him in response. The shot hisses against his neck, but the Reichdroid is worse for wear, falling down with an expanse of sparking wires visible from its torso, and as the third droid lines up its shot, he morphs once more, his arms slinking back and his head and neck becoming much bulkier, as he spits a large fireball at it in response, melting its laser arm to slag as it finishes powering up, causing it to detonate when the energy has nowhere else to go. He pants, arms shaking as he forms back to normal, giving Sonne a decidedly ticked off sideways look and no amount of patience "... My armour got turned into a dessert! Don't give me stink-eye!" Sonne snaps. And then Cain's phone rings, which he answers without looking - "Yes?" "I can't fight his control. Too strong. You need to get your heroes and stop him... before he kills your child. And the rest of us." CUT The comic cuts to Yu as he removes his hands from his face; metal veins run across his human-looking face, his eyes burns in their sockets with red energy and a swastika burns in his chest, melting his chest armour as he silently screams. CUT Redemption flies to the island, as he looks up at the edge, and sees red eyes staring down at him, a huge armoured form. "You represent hope. Tell me." It leaps from the ledge, as the new form of Blitzkrieg, when taking hosts, as seen with the raptors, leaps at Redemption. "What happens when hope dies." End of issue